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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Beef Currry Pie with a Rough Puff Topping

I was thinking of chicken pies at first but after some pondering chicken pie began to sound a little boring so I ended up making some beef curry pies instead and baked them in those adorable bowls that I had just bought (scroll down some and you'll see pics of those adorable bowls at their best - a September Post, titled -It's a Sale! It's a Sale!).

This is my first try at a beef curry pie and I have to say that the filling tasted rather good and the finished pies looked quite, quite beautiful.

Because this curry would be eaten almost on its own I had to make sure that it wasn't too spicy.

Hence the use of only a tablespoon of curry powder to 1 kilo of meat, with tomato paste added for colour and extra cumin and fennel to make sure the curry flavour was still there without it being too spicy.

I made the rough puff pastry that you see in the picture from scratch but you could use ready made puff pastry if you like. I actually made the pastry a day earlier and kept it in the fridge.

I'll post the recipe for the pastry in a future post. I just did not have the time to take any pictures while I made it.

You may need to add a little extra oil or butter for the third batch if if dries up. Best to use a non-stick pan for this. Keep aside.

If the pan has residues of crust from the browning of the beef, add 1 cup of the water to the pan and stir to loosen the crust then add this later to the beef when the remaining water is added. There is a lot of flavour in here and it will be a waste to lose it.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a medium sized pot and saute diced onions and garlic until soft and slightly golden around the edges. Add the browned beef cubes. Mix.

Add the cumin, fennel, tomato paste, chilly sauce. Mix to coat. Add the water that was poured into the pan used to brown the meat and the remaining 1 1/2 cups of water, the light soy sauce and sugar. Stir to mix.

Bring to a boil then turn down heat to simmer and let it cook until the beef is tender depending on the cut of meat you use it will probably take about 45 minutes to 1 hour or even more.

Add in all the sliced and chopped vegetables.

Cook until vegetables are very tender. Then add in the butter and flour paste to thicken the sauce. You may thicken further if desired by adding a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with water.

Season with more salt to taste.

When done keep aside and let it cool a little. Scoop the beef mixture into small to medium sized bowls that serves a person each.

(If you are using bought puff pastry make sure it has thawed completely.)

Roll out pastry onto a floured board to about slightly more than a quarter inch thick. I like my pastry to rise so high that you'll have to sit on it to bring it down. So the thicker it is the higher it will rise.

Cut the pastry into squares bigger than the mouth of the bowl so that the edges of the pastry when placed on the top will fall over the sides of the bowl. But no too much bigger though.

Brush the edges of the bowl with a brush dipped in a beaten egg and place the pastry on top. Cut a cross in the middle of the pastry top and brush the top with the beaten egg.

Place the pies on a baking tray to catch the drips as they bake.

Bake in a hot oven. I set the oven at 200 C and I baked it for 20-25 minutes until the pastries were golden brown and had risen to a thousand layers high. Enjoy.